3 Top Small and Medium Business Challenges and Their Solutions

SMBs face significant challenges that impede growth, make it difficult to scale, and create barriers to success. According to a Statista survey (2024), more than 60% of small business owners say that lack of time and resources is their biggest challenge. Meanwhile, Harvard Business Review notes that more than 70% of startups don't survive the first three years due to a lack of a clear strategy and scalable processes.

In 2025, entrepreneurs are increasingly looking to automation, artificial intelligence, and smart solutions to overcome these challenges. According to McKinsey (2025), companies that have implemented AI tools have increased process efficiency by 40% and reduced their operating costs by 35%.

But what challenges are really slowing down business development, and how do modern technologies help solve them? Let's look at four key challenges and see what solutions are available right now.

1. Customer Processing: how not to lose money on missed requests?

The Problem

Every day, thousands of businesses lose customers simply because they fail to process their requests in a timely manner. According to HubSpot, 90% of customers expect an instant response, but only 10% of businesses are able to respond within 5 minutes. And another 79% of potential customers leave for a competitor if they don't get a response in the first 24 hours (Harvard Business Review, 2024).

Many small business owners try to handle this manually, but end up losing important leads, getting negative feedback, and losing money. What's more, without automation, it's impossible to scale the customer experience.

Current trends

• Rising popularity of AI chatbots. 78% of companies have implemented automated customer support tools in 2024 (Gartner).

• Proactive support. The world's best brands are adopting technologies that help anticipate user requests.

• Lead generation through AI. Modern AI tools can not only answer questions, but also analyze customer intentions.

Solution: AI Desk

AI Desk is an AI-based customer support automation assistant designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses. It helps companies efficiently process requests, provide 24/7 support, and increase conversion rates through intelligent lead management.

AI Desk solves the problem of customer processing by:

• 24/7 automated request processing. Chatbot does not skip requests and does not require rest.

• Lead filtering. Identifies “hot” customers and passes them to managers.

• Flexible customization. Adjusts to the business, helping it respond the way the company needs it to.

  
  

  Fact: Companies that use AI for customer support increase conversion rates by 43% and reduce application processing costs by 60% (McKinsey, 2025).

2. Legal Issues: how to avoid problems with the law?

Problem

More than 70% of startups face legal challenges in their first three years of operation (Forbes, 2024). One of the most difficult and frustrating aspects of running a business is dealing with bureaucracy, contracts, and legal risks. Entrepreneurs are forced to navigate the intricacies of legislation, fear that a mistake in a contract will result in financial loss, and waste time on complex legal processes instead of growing the business.

Small companies often cannot afford an in-house lawyer, and consultations with attorneys are expensive. As a result, businesses work “on a whim” until they encounter a problem.

Current trends

• The rise of LegalTech. The number of legal startups using AI has grown 150% since 2023 (Crunchbase).

• Contract automation. In 2025, 60% of small businesses will use AI tools to handle documents (Gartner).

• Legal support without lawyers. More and more entrepreneurs are using AI Lawyers for advice.

The solution: AI Lawyer

AI Lawyer helps small businesses deal with legal tasks. This AI Lawyer has received support from Google and NVIDIA, allowing it to significantly improve the quality of its algorithms and expand its functionality. It can now not only automatically analyze and create legal documents, but also provide accurate advice tailored to local laws.

AI Lawyer helps small businesses handle legal tasks:

1. Automatically creates contracts and documents.

2. Checks contracts for errors and risks.

3. Provides legal advice without expensive lawyers.

Fact: Companies using AI for legal support cut costs by 45% and process contracts 2x faster (Forbes, 2024).

3. Supporting Creative Development: where to get ideas and time for content creation?

The Problem

It's hard for small businesses to compete with the big players because content marketing requires time, ideas, and expertise. Creating posts, videos, email blasts, and articles can take up to 40% of an entrepreneur's time (HubSpot, 2024).

If a business doesn't create content, it remains invisible online. But if it tries to do everything manually, it loses too much time and effort.

Current Trends

• Using AI for content. In 2024, 62% of marketers will use AI to generate text, images, and video (Statista).

• Marketing automation. Companies are increasingly trusting AI assistants to prepare content and strategies.

• Personalization. AI helps make content relevant to each audience.

Solution: AI Assistant

AI Assistant is a personalized AI assistant designed to automate routine tasks and increase productivity for entrepreneurs, marketers, and creative professionals. This tool allows you to work faster, get personalized recommendations and automatically generate content based on user data. With advanced algorithms, AI Assistant analyzes trends, helps you create texts, manage documents, and improve workflows.

1. Generates texts, posts and articles in minutes.

2. Creates personalized content tailored to your audience.

3. Helps automate routine tasks, freeing up time for business.

Fact: Companies using AI for marketing increase their reach by 35% and get 2x more leads (HubSpot, 2024).

Conclusion: scaling as the key to success

One of the main reasons why businesses fail is the inability to grow without losing quality of service, increasing costs and chaos in processes. A Harvard Business Review study (2024) found that 70% of small companies don't survive the scaling phase because their processes can't keep up.

Modern technology and AI tools help companies not only automate processes, but also make it easier to scale without unnecessary stress. Using artificial intelligence in business is not just a trend, but a necessity for those who want to adapt to today's market.

Artificial intelligence won't replace a specialist, but a specialist with AI will replace someone who works without it.

Businesses can either tackle problems manually or utilize smart AI tools that help them grow faster, work more efficiently, and save money. Which path will you choose?